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Entente
era leaders (left to right): Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain, President Georges Clemenceau of France, and President Woodrow Wilson of the Confederate States at a strategy conference in 1914]]The Entente is, with the Central Powers, one of two major alliance systems vying for world dominance. Members Founding Members * Britain * Confederate States * France * Russia Later Members Joined Before the Great War * Argentina * Canada * Mexico * Serbia Joined During the Great War * Belgium * China Joined Between Great War and Second Great War * Spain Japan Japan fought the United States in concert with Britain during the Great War and on its own during the Second Great War (and the Pacific War in which the rest of the Entente did not participate), but never formally joined the Entente. At the end of the Great War, it concluded a seperate peace with the Central Powers after its cobelligerents surrendered, and thus was spared the harsh peace terms to which most Great War losers were subjected. In fact, Japan was able to expand its territory by taking advantage of the ruined economy of France to buy Indochina very cheaply. In 1943, despite the hope of some Entente nations that Japan would forge closer ties to Britain and the Confederate States, it suddenly called a ceasefire with the US and invaded the British colonies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, and India. Governments Created by the Entente * Canada * Mexico * Spain One-Time Entente Members Whose Governments Are Now Defunct * Canada History Origins The earliest incarnation of the Entente came during the American War of Secession when the governments of Britain and France recognized the government of the Confederate States and joined with it militarily to force the United States to do the same. This alliance was strengthened during the Second Mexican War when the three countries once again defeated the US. To maintain the alliance, the Confederates abolished their practice of slavery. The alliance among these three was cemented, and Russia was brought into the accord, by the Entente Cordiale of 1903. The alliance continued to grow as all four nations allied with other states. Great War Serbian nationalists assassinated Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Austria-Hungary responded by issuing a number of ultimata against Serbia. Russia promised to support Serbia in a war if it refused, and emboldened, Serbia did so. Austria-Hungary went to war with Serbia, Russia went to war with Austria-Hungary, both the Entente and Central Powers were invoked, and the Great War began. During the war, Entente powers fought major land wars on the European, North American, South American, and African continents. In both Europe and North America it was able to force its principal enemy, Germany and the United States respectively, to engage in a two-front war. It also fought naval wars throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The war remained stalemated for several years, but the Entente's rival, the Central Powers, outweighed it industrially and was able to fight a war of attrition. The four major Entente powers were forced to capitulate one at a time. First Russia's Tsarist government fell to a socialist revolution and the country became embroiled in a lengthy civil war. Next France was laid low by mutinies within its army. The Confederacy was simply outmatched in its land war with the United States, and eventually could not resist innovative new US tactics which took advantage of the US's numerical and industrial superiority. Britain's position became untenable as its allies collapsed and was ultimately forced to surrender when the Central Powers convinced Brazil to join their side and shut down the all-important shipping lanes to Argentina. Without these shipping lanes Britain would not have been able to maintain a large enough food supply to feed its population. Japan, knowing it could not defeat the United States singlehandedly, agreed to a ceasefire as it licked its wounds and awaited an opportunity to defeat the US. Interwar Years Over the next twenty-four years, Entente nations came to be ruled by revanchist, militarist, nationalist governments such as the Freedom Party in the Confederacy; Action Francaise in France; the Conservative/Silver Shirt coalition in Britain; the Tsarist government of Mikhail II in Russia, who was restored to his brother's throne by a successful counterrevolution; the French- and British-backed Nationalist government in Spain; and the French- and Confederate-backed Hapsburg emperors of Mexico. These governments took advantage of the complacency which had overtaken the Central Powers as they grew comfortable in their perceived dominance. The Entente made several tests of its military prowess, most notably the Spanish and Mexican Civil Wars, in both of which Entente nations were able to secure those countries for governments they supported, defeating governments backed by the Central Powers. Second Great War In June of 1941, the Entente took advantage of the death of German Kaiser Wilhelm II to launch coordinated assaults on the United States and Germany. The Second Great War ensued. In both Europe and North America, Entente forces scored early victories and pushed the fronts well within German and American territory. (During this time, the Entente violated Norwegian and Dutch neutrality, driving both of those countries to join the Central Powers.) Entente naval forces also scored some successes in the Atlantic Ocean, including a major victory by the British Royal Navy over the German High Seas Fleet. However, 1943 saw reversals of Entente fortunes on all fronts, with British forces expelled from Germany and much of the Netherlands, Russians from Ukraine, and Confederates from the United States. Britain attempted to challenge the U.S. Navy to a decisive battle in the North Atlantic, but was defeated, and lost Bermuda in a follow-up battle. The Confederate-backed Mormon resistance movement in Utah in the US was defeated, and resistance movements throughout the Entente received infusions of support from the US and Germany. Japan had become a cobelligerent of the Entente, as it had in the Great War, but in 1943 it called for a ceasefire with the US and invaded the British colonies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, and India. The Entente also suffered major public relations setbacks when Camp Determination was captured in western Texas and information of Russian pogroms against the Jews were advertised. While Entente powers remain nominally allied in the war, the alliance is much looser and weaker than it was in the Great War and during the interwar rearming. Cooperation is at a much lower level than it was during the Great War, with halfhearted Anglo-French cooperation on one of the western European fronts and a joint operation to take Bermuda executed by the Royal and Confederate navies proving to be the exception rather than the rule. The most serious weakening of the system came in early 1943 when Japan disengaged from its war with the United States and invaded British colonies in Asia. Entente in Worldwar The Entente was the alliance system which defeated Germany in World War I. They attempted to impose a harsh peace on Germany through the Treaty of Versailles but lacked the will to enforce its strict provisions for more than a few years. On their watch, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party were elected to rule Germany. Hitler rearmed and by 1939 felt sufficiently strong to begin World War II against former Entente members. In 1966, after the Race defeated Germany in the Race-German War of 1965 and imposed severe technological restrictions designed to neutralize Germany as a threat to the Race, former Entente members warned Cairo that Germany was accustomed to subverting such restrictions. Atvar boasted that the Race was more patient and more thorough than Tosevites and would not make the Entente's mistakes. However, Germany rearmed under enlightened leadership policies introduced by Chancellor Walter Dornberger, and the Race fared little better than the Entente in preventing this. Within several decades Germany was once again able to threaten the Race. Entente Entente Entente *